Ole Miss athletics sends message to students before top-10 clash with LSU

Head coach Lane Kiffin. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Ole Miss athletics sends message to students before top-10 clash with LSU

By Olamilekan Ajayi | Last updated Sep 17, 2026 7:27 PM ET

Ole Miss Athletics sent its students a new set of instructions on Thursday afternoon, two days before LSU visits Oxford with their former HC Lane Kiffin on the opposing sideline. The instructions govern what students can wear into their own section of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and they apply regardless of how the ticket was obtained.

"No person wearing an opposing team's gear or colors will be allowed entrance into the student section," the message reportedly stated. "Additionally, anyone found to be wearing opposing team apparel or colors in the student section will be removed."

The restriction holds even for a student who obtained a ticket legitimately, and Ole Miss had already done work around the student section last season that kept anyone entering there from moving into other areas of Vaught-Hemingway.

To the school's knowledge, this is the first time it has put a plan of this kind in place. Mobile tickets are now NFC-based, with screenshots refused at the gate, and game-day parking on campus is restricted to permit holders.

NEW: Ole Miss Athletics warns students wearing opposing-team gear will be removed from the student section Saturday vs. LSU❌

"No person wearing an opposing team's gear or colors will be allowed entrance into the student section. Additionally, anyone found to be wearing opposing… pic.twitter.com/MOr7bFLHeO
— On3 (@On3) September 17, 2026

In a message sent from Ole Miss athletics to students:

“No person wearing an opposing team's gear or colors will be allowed entrance into the student section.
Additionally, anyone found to be wearing opposing team apparel or colors in the student section will be removed.”

I’m…
— Tyler Komis (@TylerKomis) September 17, 2026

Why Ole Miss is policing its own student section

Kiffin left Ole Miss on Nov. 30 with the Rebels about to enter the College Football Playoff, took the LSU job, and brought offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens with him. He also signed four Ole Miss players out of the transfer portal.

Pete Golding, promoted from defensive coordinator, then beat Tulane and Georgia in the playoff before losing to eventual national runner-up Miami in the semifinals.

"I guess there's real safety issues and stuff. So, there's people that have a plan for that. It is what it is," Kiffin said in Baton Rouge this week. Golding used his Monday availability to ask Ole Miss fans for restraint, pointing to the way visitors have always been treated in Oxford.

The heat has been building for ten months, through social media exchanges and a baseball series between the schools in Oxford, and it now arrives with College GameDay on campus and both teams unbeaten. No. 8 Ole Miss and No. 7 LSU kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

It is the first Magnolia Bowl since 1962 in which both teams were ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll.

Olamilekan Ajayi

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